How To Wear Leopard Without Looking Like A Mob Wife
How To Wear Leopard Without Looking Like A Mob Wife
The Horny Rich & Lazy lifestyle is all about a pair of $70 platforms
Guys, this was a fun one for me. Way back when, way back in the day, I was a fashion editor at Lucky mag, under Eva Chen. This was in, like, 2013. We used to work all the time with this stylist Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, and to call her a stylist is the understatement of a lifetime. She is an icon. She is a goddess. She is insane, and hilarious, and mean, and TAN, and she embodies everything I love about fashion. She styled Anna Wintour’s first cover of Vogue (a first for mixing couture with denim), she’s behind that iconic Versace campaign, she is massively influential, and just like - defies description or explanation, and she is one of my biggest sources of inspiration. I fucking love her, and she is the queen of the High/Low mix (every time I saw her she’d be in an Adidas tracksuit with like, sixteen Chanel mini bags on, plus an Hermes, plus seven tons of gold jewelry, plus a cigarette).
Anyway, we used to do these shoots that were leopard inspired, and we’d do them regularly, and as market editors we’d go to all the high end brands looking for leopard pieces, but she always wanted an appointment to go pull at Guess and H&M. Guess, in her view, had the best leopard print - besides Alaïa. She didn’t like an abstract leopard, she liked whore leopard. he was specific but democratic in her judgement - it wasn’t about the quality of the item, it was about the look - irrespective of brand. It was hugely influential to me. A good thing is a good thing, regardless of cost. She has fucking leopard KLEENEX!!!!!
(If you see me in person, ask me about the time she mistook me for a fit model and told me to undress in our conference room - I’ve never been happier in my life)
So anyway. Carlyne. Leopard. Me. Mob Wife. Horny Rich & Lazy.
It’s not that I don’t like the Mob Wife aesthetic, it’s that I don’t like bandwagons. I like experimentation, but I don’t like inauthenticity. Carlyne = authentic to the max. And with a trend as huge as Mob Wife (or last year’s quiet luxury) for those who regularly wear these things, suddenly their personal style is coopted into a trend and it becomes tricky for them to dress like themselves. Leopard is such a huge part of the whole Mob Wife thing, but it’s not the only way to wear it. That said, I’ve seen a lot of it lately, and a lot of it has been very inspiring to me - especially this look from Michael Kors, and this one from Wales Bonner (if anyone knows when or where or how I can buy this jacket, please let me know?).
It’s an entirely different take on the trend. This is becoming very long winded, but anyway, I had a lot of fun playing with leopard stuff, thinking about Carlyne, feeling her spirit, and putting together looks with animal print that feel distinctly off trend, in a good way. Here’s how to wear it. (You can also just shop the edit here) (And as an additional plug, if you want a targeted edit & styled looks by me, using pieces that are already in your closet + suggested items at any price point…right this way!)
Also, the credits are kind of hard to read, but again, you can find everything and more here.